Wednesday, September 19, 2012

NEW ORLEANS--In the first regular season rankings for Division II that were released Wednesday, the Western Washington men's cross country team are ranked #10 in the USTFCCCA coaches' poll, despite a fourth place finish in last Saturday's Sundodger Invitational.

Adams State of Colorado is the country's #1 team according to the national coaches' poll.
The Falcons of Seattle Pacific, thanks to a strong second place finish in the open section of the Sundodger Invitational last Saturday, make their first appearance in the national men's poll this season, as they come in at #29 after not being ranked in the pre-season poll.

In the women's national poll, Western Washington is ranked #15, dropping two spots from the pre season poll, while Seattle Pacific moves up 12 spots from their pre-season ranking of #30 to #18.
Augustana of South Dakota is the country's #1 women's team in NCAA D2 according to the coaches' poll.

For winning the open section of the Sundodger, Western's Chip Jackson (above/photo courtesy Western Washington University) was named the GNAC athlete of the week.

Jackson joined Paul Kezes of Western Washington (2002), David Kiplagat of Alaska Anchorage (2006), John Riak of Saint Martin's (2007) and Kyle Van Santen of Saint Martin's (2010) as the only GNAC athletes to win the event. "Chip ran a great race, a very smart race," WWU coach Pee Wee Halsell said. "He was 15th or 20th around the mile mark, far enough back that nobody was worried about him, but he gradually picked them all off."

This week in the GNAC, Central Washington, Seattle Pacific and Western Washington will join the host Saints at the Saint Martin's Invitational. Central Washington will also compete among with Montana State Billings at the Erik Anderson Invitational in Spokane.

Toyota, which was already committed to provide support until the 14th edition of the IAAF World Championships, Moscow, Russia (10 - 18 August 2013), has agreed to extend its commitment to cover the 2015 and 2017 IAAF World Championships which take place respectively inBeijing, China (22-30 August 2015) and London, United Kingdom (5 - 13 August 2017).

Toyota’s support of the IAAF World Championships also ranges from presenting awards to World record setting athletes, providing environment-friendly vehicles - such as the "Prius" gasoline-electric hybrid - for use during the championships, in line with the "Green Earth" and "Green Management" ideals of the IAAF’s Green Project.

We are honored to receive this award, as it comes from our peers who passionately cover the sport, and strive to continue the legacy of excellence that the late Adam Jacobs sought before his untimely passing.

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About Me

Internationally respected track and field writer Paul Merca brings his take on the sport to paulmerca.blogspot.com.
Paul was the assistant director of communications for the 1984 USA Women's Olympic Marathon Trials in Olympia, WA., and public relations director for the 1999 USA Cross Country Championships in Tacoma, WA.
The current public address announcer for the University of Washington's home track and field meets, Merca's been a media assistant to the USA national team (2001-11, 13, 15) at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships.
His vast knowledge of the sport has been utilized by many of the country's sports television networks, and is a senior writer to Northwest Runner magazine. He's covered twelve IAAF World Track & Field Championships, and two Olympics.
Merca graduated from Seattle's Franklin High School in 1977, and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Washington in 1981 in Communications.
He competed in track and cross country at Franklin, and ran cross country at the University of Washington.